Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This section consists of five parts, namely background of the study, problem formulation, objectives of the study, benefits of the study, and definition of the terms. The background of the study explains about the writer’s reasons in choosing the topic and the Freedom Writers movie script as the main topic and source in this study. The problem formulation consists of the questions which are going to be answered in this study. The objectives of the study explain about the goal of this study. The benefits of the study explain about the benefits of doing this study for the readers. Last, the definition of the terms explains about the important terms used in this study.

A. Background of the Study

According to the National Council of Education Research and Training 2006, the aim of education is to make children capable of becoming active, responsible, productive, and caring members of society. It is clear that education is not merely about transferring the knowledge to the students, but also encouraging the students to be more active, productive, and care to the society. To achieve the aims of education, there should be good quality of teaching. In performing the purpose of education, teachers are the agents to bring the aim of education into reality. Teachers have important roles in this life. 2 According to Woolfolk in her book Educational Psychology for Teachers 1980, pp. 6-8, teachers have many roles at the same time, which are as an instructional expert, motivator, manager, leader, counselor, environmental engineer, and as a model. Teachers have a big responsibility to educate the students who have different characteristics and backgrounds while considering the aim of education. No matter who the students are and how different their characteristics are, teachers should educate them. It is not easy to teach the students with different characteristics. Sometimes it will bring some conflicts for teachers. Conflict is a problem which is experienced by people in life. According to Beaty and Hunter 1989, conflict is a part of human nature. No one can escape conflict for so long. Even though it is an unpleasant feeling, people cannot avoid of having some conflicts in life. As human beings, teachers cannot avoid of having conflicts. As teachers, they must face many types of students who have different characteristics. Facing different characteristics of people may lead to some conflicts because people have different ways of acting and thinking. That may lead to misunderstanding between people, and end up with conflicts. According to Kennedy and Giogia 2010, in literary works, conflict can be divided into two types which are internal conflict and external conflict. The external conflict happens when a character struggles against another character, society, natural force, or against some supernatural eternity. The internal conflict is a struggle against two desires within a character. In this study, the writer analyzed the conflicts and characteristics of Erin Gruwell as a teacher in multicultural society. The story of Erin can be seen in 3 Freedom Writers movie. Freedom Writers is a movie based on novel, which contains the diaries of a teacher named Erin and her 150 students. The movie tells a true story about the conflicts faced by Erin Gruwell, who teaches in the urban area of New Port Beach. There are many races live there. The movie tells about the experiences of Erin when she teaches in class number 203. The class number 203 is different from other classes. It has students who come from different races. It is not easy to teach there because if there were miss communications, there would be fight between the races. The problems in the movie bring some conflicts for Erin. The analysis about characteristics and conflicts of Erin as a teacher in multicultural society gives advantages for teachers in Indonesia as a multicultural country. Indonesia has many races, religions, and traditions. From that fact, schools in Indonesia have students who come from different races, religions, and traditions. As teachers in multicultural society which has different characteristics of students, teachers in Indonesia face many problems inside and outside the class. Problems that happen will bring the conflicts up. By analyzing the way Erin faces conflicts as a teacher in multicultural society, teachers in Indonesia can have references how to deal with students with different characteristics and backgrounds. This study also reveals the messages behind the characteristics and conflicts of Erin. According to Beaty and Hunter 1989, message or moral value is an oversimplification or conclusion from a literary work. From the 4 characteristics and conflicts faced by Erin, the writer takes some values from the story. Therefore, the readers can see the moral values and take it as a good lesson. Freedom Writers movie script as the object of the study will be analyzed through the analysis of literary work. Literary work itself is the result of the human creation in which people share ideas or certain issue with other people Guerrin, 1987, p.18. There are many products of literary works such as poem, novel, short story, and drama. Even movie is not mentioned as a literary work, but literary work and movie actually have very close relationship. It is because every movie must have a script. According to Geiger and Rutsky 2005, movie is visual moving image which builds a story which is shown on the screen. Movie also has aesthetical values which can be found in literary works that make literary analysis can be applied to analyze movie. The aesthetical values that exist in novel such as plot, conflict, and character also exist in movie. In a same line with Geiger and Rutsky 2005, Boggs 1978, p. 20 also states that “perspective film analysis is built on the same elements used in literary analysis and if we apply what we have learned in the study of literature to our film analysis, we are far ahead of those who do not ”. From the statements of the experts, it is possible to analyze a movie using literary analysis because a movie has a movie script that is considered as a literary work. Another reason why literary analysis can be applied to analyze a movie is that a movie has aesthetical values which also exist in literary work. Since the story of the novel is adapted to a movie, there is a visual element in it. The audience can see what characters do and say, so it will help the audience 5 to interpret the story easily. Therefore, people can get the values of the story from the movie. By revealing the conflicts that faced by the character, the writer wants to help the reader to see how Erin handles her conflicts as a teacher in multicultural society and take value from it. The writer chose the Freedom Writers movie script as the object of the study because it is a good example for education world. It tells about a story of a good teacher in handling her conflicts that she faced as a teacher that brings the aims of education into reality. This study is expected to help and guide teachers to bring the aims of education to reality. Since the object of the study is in the form of movie, it is hoped that the reader will be interested to watch the movie too. By doing so, beside get the value from this study, the reader can be amused also by watching the movie.

B. Problem Formulation